Chap. 3- Staying and Training

"Now there is still the concept of where she will stay." Genkai brought up the subject Natsuki was not looking forward to. "She is always welcome here, there sure as hell is enough space!" Genkai looked around the room and out past the sliding doors. Kurama stood up.

"She is always welcome at my house." He said politely. Hiei said nothing, Yusuke shook his head.

"My mom would flip!"

"Yeah, my sis would to." Kuwabara said, looking up at the ceiling. Possibly wondering what his sister's reactions would be if he told her a demon girl would be staying with them.

"Where would you prefer to stay?" Kurama asked looking hopeful. Uh oh. What did she say. She didn't want to hurt Kurama's feelings, he probably still felt bad about this morning.

"Where ever it would be most convenient." came out before she could really think too hard. Genkai nodded curly.

"Then it's settled. She will stay here." Every one nodded. "We will begin her training this weekend. That would be two days Mister Urameshi."

"Yeah yeah, I heard ya." Yusuke waved his hand as if he could never dream of forgetting.

"Don't all come at once though, otherwise you'll all be sitting around for ours waiting your turn. I'll give you time slots." Genkai looked up at all of them, literally looking up.

"Hiei, you will come first. Teach her the basic techniques. Come around nine." Hiei nodded and left.

"Yusuke and Kuwabara, you will come at ten. Help her to manifest her weapon of choice." Yusuke gave a thumbs up signal and Kuwabara said "all right!"

"Kurama, you will come at ten thirty..."

"Hey! Hiei gets an hour, why do we only get thirty minutes?" Yusuke blurted. Genkai flew over to Yusuke and slapped him.

"Because are you a fire demon!? I don't think so! Hiei needs more time because his techniques are harder and they are mostly the same race of demon!" Yusuke didn't say anything else.

"As I was saying, Kurama you will come at ten thirty to see what she knows about plants. You will only need thirty minutes also." Kurama nodded. "You are all free to go." Genkai dismissed them.

After the boys had left, Genkai showed Natsuki to her sleeping quarters. The room was much bigger than Kurama's guestroom but just as empty. Every one must be going for the feng-shui look she thought silently.

"Here is where you will be staying for as long as you are here. Unless you decide to stay somewhere else..." Natsuki looked at Genkai. Was she talking about Kurama?

"I will wake you at eight. Hiei should be here at nine." Genkai told Natsuki thoughtfully. I'm extremely surprised I haven't heard any complaints out of him. He usually would never agree to something like this so leniently. She did not, however, say this aloud. "Here is a change of cloths for in the morning." She handed Natsuki an outfit similar to what Genkai was wearing. The only difference was the long vest that went over the outfit was black. "I never wear this one." She said seeing Natsuki inspect it with her eyes. "The color doesn't look good on me and it's too big. I'll get someone to wash your..."she looked Natsuki up and down "...cloths." Genkai then left. Natsuki looked around. (she like to look around before leaving herself vulnerable) She thought, this would be a good place to dance.

The candles in the corner of the room shuddered slightly as Natsuki glided past them dancing. Her moves were flowing and graceful. It almost seemed as if all her movements came from her hips and traveled up her body. She glided along, twirling, (leaping a few times) prancing and doing some sort of hula across the floor in circles around her bed.

Hiei sat out in a tree near Natsuki's room. He watched her silhouette dance around the room. She was very graceful. He couldn't help but watch, wondering why he liked her so much. It was not love, as far as he could tell. Of course he never really had been in love before, so he wouldn't really know. He thought no more of it and flitted off to find a good tree to sleep in.

The next morning, Genkai came into Natsuki's room. She did not stir at all when Genkai tapped her lightly on the shoulder. Her curly brown hair just fell down in front of her face elegantly and she snoozed on. Genkai would have to use a different tactic. She closed her eyes and slowly lifted her hands, concentrating very hard. All of a sudden her eyes napped open and she thrust her hands upward, flinging Natsuki into the air.

"AAARG! PUT ME DOWN DAMN IT!!!" Natsuki yelled not quite sure if she was dreaming or not. Genkai listened and dropped her abruptly. She landed with a thud on her bed. At least she was polite enough to drop her on her on her bed and not on the floor.

"Next time I recommend to don't sleep as soundly." Genkai said sternly. "Come get breakfast." She walked out of the room closing the door behind her. Natsuki sat up and rubbed her eyes, yawned, stretched, and went to go have breakfast. Genkai was sipping something quietly cross-legged by a table. She looked up and her eyes motioned to a bowl of soup that was obviously hers. She bowed and went to sit by her and eat or drink.

Yusuke woke up around nine. He took his sweet little time getting up because he had an hour. After the painstakingly slow process of getting out of bed, he went to the kitchen to try and find something to eat. His mom was asleep in font of the TV as usual. There were three or four beer cans lying around her. What a lush. He thought to himself. After eating, he went into his room and got dressed. He almost thought about leaving his mom a note...no way.

He walked down the side walk, passing Keiko's family's restaurant. He made his way to the bus stop. Kuwabara was waiting for him.

"It's about time Urameshi! What took ya so long?"

"Chill, the bus won't come for another fifteen minutes." They sat down inside one of the waiting "huts".

"So what do you think about her? Ya know, Natsuki." Kuwabara obviously didn't like her after the little insult and was pressing Yusuke about the matter.

"I don't know, I mean, she didn't seem that powerful. I can't imagine her being as tough as Toguro." Silence "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

Natsuki and Hiei stood facing each other. They were off in the woods near Genkai's house. There was a clearing that was absolutely perfect to work in.

"First of all, there is not much I can teach you without you having a weapon. It's to early for any of my major attacks without knowing how you energy would react." Natsuki looked at Hiei will great respect. This was the most she had ever heard him say.

"So we will give the two imbeciles who have you next a little head start." He looked up at her, his eyes looking straight into hers. Natsuki felt a shiver go down her spine.

"Hold your hand out and attempt to concentrate your energy into it." Natsuki did as she was told. She held her hand out and focused hard. A small orb of blackish-pinkish light appeared in her hand, slowly increasing in size.

"Good, now try to grasp it and turn it into a sword." He said clenching his fists, as if doing the same thing. She tried but the light just went away. Hiei looked at her hand for a moment then started looking around. His gaze landed just above her head.

"Take those sticks out of your hair." He was pointing at the chopsticks she had used to put her hair up in (she didn't tell Genkai she had used them). She obeyed, jerking them out of her hair. The soft brown curls fell down her back and around her neck. He took one.

"Now concentrate your energy like before only use the stick as a holder for it." He held the one he had out. "Like this..." he waved it once in front of him and a greenish black energy sword appeared." Now you try." He ordered, causing his sword to vanish. Natsuki looked at the chopstick in her hand. She focused hard on it. A few little sparks shot out, then all of a sudden, a great skewer-like sword appeared out of the end of her chopstick.

"Whoa!" She held the pinkish black energy.... skewer out in front of her. Hiei looked happy, but like hell he was going to tell her good job.

"Yusuke and Kuwabara can help you on your width." He said trying to mask his feelings of accomplishment.

They had thirty minutes left so Hiei taught her a technique in which the energy formed a protective barrier around her fists, making her able to punch through anything. She was punching through a tree when they heard a whistle coming from the house.

"Times up, I'm assuming. I don't think you need to practice anything. I would say your energy sword, but that's not my place. Have fun with the idiot brigade." With those last words, Hiei flitted off into the trees. Natsuki stared at the place he had left through for a while, and then ran towards the house.

Her lesson with Yusuke and Kuwabara proved that Hiei was right. They were imbeciles. The only thing she got accomplished was she was able to develop to energy swords, and could pull them out of her hair very quickly. Yusuke and Kuwabara got into a fight halfway into the lesson and didn't stop until it was time to go.

Her lesson with Kurama was much more enjoyable. She was in the same clearing with him as she was with Hiei. He had her sit down. Pulling a seed out of his hair, he held it in the palm of his hand.

"Try to make it grow. If you can, then you have some power over plants and I will be of some help." Natsuki looked into Kurama's eyes. The shiver did not run down her spine like when she looked into Hiei's, but was that necessarily a bad thing? Instead there was just warmth, deep down inside her.

Kurama looked into her eyes. Her eyes were a different colored differently than Hiei's. Her's were almost bright red, with a little ring or brown around her pupil. He couldn't decide which he liked better. He pushed the seed forward and she looked down.

Natsuki began to concentrate. When nothing happened, she decided to take a different approach. She imagined herself as the seed. She closed her eyes. She was trapped inside the seed's heavy shell. She had to push free. Had to get out. Had to be free!

Kurama watched Natsuki strain. He looked down at the seed in his hand. Little vines had sprouted out of it and were quickly curling up his arm, neck, in his hair.

"Um, you can stop now. He said Natsuki's eyes snapped open.

She looked at Kurama. Half his upper body was covered in vines. His hand was still outstretched and he was smiling. Natsuki couldn't help but giggle. She fell over in a fit of giggles. She found herself unable to stop. Kurama started to laugh. This seemed to happen every time someone heard her laugh. Was her laugh really that funny sounding?

Kurama had never heard anything like this before. Her laugh was so innocent sounding, so pure. He couldn't help but want to laugh too. Finally she came to and stopped. She pushed herself up off the ground and sat looking at him.

"I'm sorry," Natsuki said apologetically. Kurama just smiled.

"No need to apologize, you made the plant grow...a lot" Natsuki couldn't help but giggle at this. Kurama had managed to free himself from the vines while she was laughing. He looked amused and happy.

All of a sudden Natsuki didn't feel like giggling any more. She looked us at Kurama with a serious expression.

"Kurama, I...I don't...I can't imagine ever killing anyone." The subject was touchy and Kurama's expression turned cold. He looked down

"I don't know if it's true. Your name is Natsuki Kimuran, you know that for sure." He looked at her and she nodded. "Then you are responsible for all those deaths." He said gravely.

"Why did Genkai, not react when you told her?" Natsuki asked

"Because I did not tell her, or any of the others. Not Even Hiei" Kurama looked up at her and put his had against the side of her face. Natsuki leaned into it. His hand was warm and it brought her comfort.

"Do not worry about it. We will find out how this has happened." He let go. "I believe our time is almost up." Kurama stood up then helped Natsuki stand. "You can rest a few days before I will teach you some more. I can't speak for the others though." They walked back to Genkai's, side by side.